Cad Disadvantages

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Computer-aided-Design (CAD) refers to use computer software technology to assist with conceptual design and layout of products. In the products and industrial design, CAD software is widely used in creating 2D or 3D graphical representation of products. It also involves data analysing to help engineers with optimizing design for manufacturing. In this lab, “AutoCAD 2016” is used for drawing.
Computer-aided-Manufacturing (CAM) is the process of using computer software to define detailed manufacturing plan by G-code in order to instruct the CNC machine to manufacturing designed products. CAM process involves with computer-aided design (CAD) model preparation, choosing materials, tooling design, NC programming, coordinate measuring machine (CMM) …show more content…

In engineering practice, CAD/CAM has been utilized to produce drawings and document designs or used as a visual tool by generating images and animated displays. It had replaced the traditional drafting and saved plenty of time in conceptual design. The interaction between engineer and computer greatly increase the efficiency as well as the accuracy of drawing and manufacturing which can lead to cost and time saving. The following paragraph will attempt to highlight some principal advantages of CAD/CAM because the advantages of CAD/CAM are …show more content…

For example, when we were drawing the circular holes in this lab, CAD enable us to quickly joint two circles by tangent line, then we can use the ”Trim” feature to easily erase the inner half circle we don’t need. The improvement on flexibility can also be seen in copying existed object in the drawing, we were able to quickly draw four holes on each corner of the baseplate by using “mirror” feature. Also many others features in CAD software that helps with reducing design time in editing object.
Another advantages of CAD is the re-use of design data. In this lab, an end view which had been created previously is used which greatly increase the speed of our design process, especially in designing a complex geometry. However, there are massive duplication of efforts when engineers are drawing by hand. Saving more time from design work can increase the productivity.
The grid feature, acting as a drawing aid, allows user to have a general idea about the size of drawn objects and visualize the distance between them. Furthermore, the snap feature allow you to pick points on an edge or corner of an object, which makes it very easy to draw new lines from the existing geometry. These two features prevent user from being confused with input coordinates and make it less likely to have overlaps or gaps. Therefore, the grid and snap feature can improve the accuracy and reduce the time spent on design

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